Career teachers cost too much, talk back at meetings, resist mindless rote teaching, expect to be

[madfloridian]

treated with respect.

Great piece by Anthony Cody at his Education Week blog.

Teachers: A Call to Battle for Reluctant Warriors

Subtitle: We just wanted to teach.

When I was drawn to teach in Oakland, I saw a chance to give students the chance to do hands-on experiments, to answer their own questions, and explore the natural world. On field trips to the tide pools I found out some had never even been to the Pacific Ocean, an hour's drive from their homes. I did not enter teaching to prepare students for tests. I wanted my students to think and reason for themselves.

....But career teachers are not convenient or necessary any more. We cost too much. We expect our hard-won expertise to be recognized with respect and autonomy. We talk back at staff meetings, and object when we are told we must follow mindless scripts, and prepare for tests that have little value to our students.

....Teachers, by our nature cooperators respectful of authority, are slow to react. Can the destruction of public education truly be anyone's goal? The people responsible for this erosion rarely state their intentions. With smiles and praise for teachers, they remove our autonomy and make our jobs depend on test scores. With calls for choice and civil rights, they re-segregate our schools, and institute zero-tolerance discipline policies in their no-excuses charter schools. They push for larger classes in public schools but send their own children to schools with no more than 16 students in a room. Corporate philanthropies anoint teacher "leaders" who are willing to echo reform themes - sometimes even endorsed by our national teacher unions.

....Some teachers are even declaring themselves Badasses, and expressing outright defiance. There will be protests this summer - mark your calendar. Teachers are organizing for a protest at the Gates Foundation in Seattle on June 26. And the Badass Teachers (BATs) will be rallying in Washington, DC, on July 28.

We just wanted to teach, to make a difference in the lives of our students. But when that is made impossible, then we have no choice but to get organized and fight, for ourselves, and for the students we serve.

I respect Arne Duncan as a basketball hero.

I do not respect him as the Secretary of Education. Very few educators do.

He has done a lot of harm to our public education system. Those of us who talk about it out loud are considered disloyal. Especially disloyal if we point out that it is bipartisan policy.

Good for Anthony Cody for this column.

Good for the teachers who are making their voices heard. And especially good for the parents who are joining the fray with their own voices.

[cyberswede]

1. K&R

[Starry Messenger]

2. K&R

[madfloridian]

5. .....

Thanks and

[madfloridian]

3. And good for the BATS

https://twitter.com/BadassTeachersA

[questionseverything]

19. ty for link

i had not heard about BATS

[madfloridian]

23. There are the ones for the states as well.

New York is a large one.

https://twitter.com/NYStateBATs
New Jersey

https://twitter.com/NJBatsa

Lots of others...hasn't been going on that long. It's a good idea for some very angry teachers.

[FloriTexan]

4. Kick

[hedda_foil]

6. They know exactly what they're doing.

They just mouth their unholy platitudes for public consumption. Nothing in our society is real at this point. It's all just PR.

[madfloridian]

7. Wow your statement...so true.

"Nothing in our society is real at this point. It's all just PR."

[hedda_foil]

9. Thanks, guys. The thought struck me tonight

And suddenly everything we've been experiencing became clear.

[questionseverything]

20. when it seems both pol parties are TRYING

to defund public schools,where do we turn?

[madfloridian]

21. That's just it....nowhere to turn.

And they know it.

[Skip Intro]

8. "Nothing in our society is real at this point. It's all just PR." +1000! n/t

[emsimon33]

10. When Obama chose Arne Duncan to head the Department of Education

and when he chose Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff, I knew then that these were NOT the change we had voted for or worked so hard to elect Obama. In fact, in 2012, I did not volunteer for Obama's campaign nor did I send money--both of which I had done in 2008 to the tunes of 1000s of my own dollars and hours. I worked and financially supported local, state, and federal congressional and senate candidates.

Arne Duncan appears to lack the intelligence to understand pre-K-12 education and his tenure as secretary either reflects his lack of intelligence or he is a tool of evil and vile forces.

[madfloridian]

17. Arne Duncan can't speak without talking points. Even then he gets confused.

I bet he wishes he hadn't said that Katrina was the best thing to happen to New Orleans schools.

I could go on.

[emsimon33]

24. I bet he wishes he didn't say a lot of things.

[Jerry442]

11. "Can the destruction of public education truly be anyone's goal?"

Yes.

Simple answers to simple questions.

[Bigmack]

12. When Ms. Bigmack and I retired...

... they couldn't have been happier.

A whole slug of us were hired at the same time when the district was growing in the mid-70's (that's 1970's, smartasses!).

Lots of us had tons of seniority and idiosyncratic credit by the 90's. We knew where all the bodies were buried, who was - literally - sleeping with whom, and we knew the budget intimately.

Nothing like having teachers with a whole armful of stripes explaining things to the admin.

The young teachers now are so scared for their jobs, so beaten down by cutbacks, and so demoralized that the PTB can do almost anything to them.

End of public education...

[madfloridian]

14. "The young teachers now are so scared for their jobs"

and you are right...the powers that be can treat them very badly with impunity.

[JDPriestly]

13. Ending public education was a Libertarian Party plank when Charles Koch headed the ticket in 1980.

“We advocate the complete separation of education and State. Government schools lead to the indoctrination of children and interfere with the free choice of individuals. Government ownership, operation, regulation, and subsidy of schools and colleges should be ended.”

“We condemn compulsory education laws … and we call for the immediate repeal of such laws.”

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/10/1291095/-Astounding-Charles-Koch-s-1980-VP-Run-Kill-Medicare-Soc-Sec-Min-Wage-Public-Ed

[madfloridian]

15. Interesting.

Koch's dream is coming true.

[MountainMama]

22. What????

"We condemn compulsory education laws."

I have no words.

[FloriTexan]

16. K&R

[Orsino]

18. Cheap-labor conservatism is winning. n/t